Britain's Secret Wars

September 10, 2016 5:24 PM

For more than 100 years, Britain has been perpetually at war. Some conflicts, such as the Falklands, have become central to our national narrative, but others, including the brutal suppression of rebels in Oman, have been deliberately hidden.
posted by Joe in Australia (6 comments total)

For the record a map of every country invaded by the UK. (Yeah, I'm a Brit. If we'd ever had a functioning democracy, well, those white bits would also be red. Yes, we are that bloodthirsty)
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:35 PM on September 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

Secret wars and secret laws are always an affront to humanity.
posted by oheso at 7:06 PM on September 10, 2016

Don't worry! Now that we've Brexited, and by extension, shortened the lifespan of the EU, we'll have a real, out-in-the open war in the next 15-30 yrs.
posted by lalochezia at 8:12 PM on September 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

For the record, the source of that map (in the first reply) is Stuart’s Laycock’s 2012 book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To.

Laycock’s definition of “invasion” includes:

• British forces set foot on soil
• Naval actions in other countries' waters
• Negotiated/paid presence
• Incursions in support of the locals
• Sanctioned piracy

But does not include:

• Air raids
• British soldiers in foreign armies

Let us look at Portugal. The Anglo–Portugese alliance has been in force since 1386 (not a typo). So when did Britain find time to invade Portugal? According to Laycock: in 1762 when they defended Portugese territory against the Spanish and in 1809 when they defended it against the French.

It is my opinion that it is perverse to call that “invasion”, while ignoring countries “merely” targeted by air raids.
posted by Fongotskilernie at 2:47 AM on September 11, 2016 [10 favorites]

At some point you have to ask whether it's really about being a warrior nation or just that nobody likes you.
posted by Segundus at 9:44 AM on September 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

So, Oman and Yemen at the toe of the world's largest ass kicking machine. Great.
posted by Oyéah at 10:03 AM on September 12, 2016